AI Wen Yu
A polite yet curious young lady. She is new to Terra and is most interested in the relationships between the people, races and kingdoms of Terra. Ai is a blacksmith and master of the Jian sword style known as Wushu. 'The Jîanshû' A race that originates from a land far to the east of Terra, they are artisans who specialise in metal working which compliments their strange magic. They are a peaceful race who prefer to solve issues through debating and talk rather than through fighting and violence. Occasionally there are situations which talking cannot solve and the opposing parties elect champions who duel for victory for either party. The result of a duel cannot be changed and cannot be opposed. Their system of government was a democratic monarchy. A council made up of representatives of each province made decisions regarding laws that were then put forward to an emperor who decided whether the law was worthy of being true law. Magic The magic of the Jîanshû is the ability to manipulate metal. They use this to create great structures that last for centuries with metal foundations and create weapons and jewellery of incomparable beauty and strength. Their magic is used so often that over centuries of using it the people who were born with magic started to be born with metal bones. Appearance The Jîanshû wear formal clothes everyday, the main garment being the Kimono. The colours are often bright and regal such as bright reds, blues and blacks. They all feature a gold coloured trimming. All Jîanshû are born with masks for faces. There is no solid explanation for the masks though there is a legend told by elders. A long time ago, the Jîanshû used their magic for evil purposes. They created great war machines and conquered lands with no magic for money and power. The gods were unpleased with this and sent a dragon to assess the situation. The dragon held powerful magic the gods gifted to him and he used them to scare the Jîanshû into submission. The dragon grew hungry with his magic and used it to oppress the Jîanshû and force them to do its bidding. They created beautiful metal workings and presented them to the dragon. The dragon punished those who displeased him by cursing their family with the masks. The gods eventually noticed and fought the dragon. In its dying breath, the dragon cursed all Jîanshû with the masks and its death sealed the curse with a binding that could never be broken. The gods tried and failed to break the curse so they modified it. The masks were no longer a blank white but reflected the way the person grew up and the experiences they had so that everyone had a different mask. 'Ai Wen Yu' Biography Ai Wen Yu was born to a village of weapon smiths. The metal magic within the village was strong and all children born into the clan had it from birth and required little training to master it. Ai was different, she was the first child in over two hundred years to be born with no metal magic. While she had the bones of metal that marked a magical child, she could not use it. She did not want to disappoint her village, so when she was thirteen years old she took an apprenticeship with a blacksmith and learned the hand techniques to forging weapons and jewellery. She worked hard, melting and casting and folding and working the metal into beautiful pieces of art that were strong and would never break. The blacksmith also had her taught the single sword fighting style of the Wudang school, specialising in Wushu style sword. On her twentieth birthday, she was finished a sword when she felt something click inside her. A door in her mind had opened and she suddenly felt the presence of metal in more that just a sense of touch and sight. Out of curiosity, she reached her hand into the molten metal, willing it not to burn her. It did not, the metal was under her control. When her master saw what she was doing he panicked and pulled her hand out only to be surprised it was still there and unscathed. She looked at her master and with a deft movement of her hand she commanded the metal to shape itself into a sword right there in mid air, so it did. The village thought it a miracle and celebrated both her birthday and the awakening of her magic. The news of this miracle reached the emperors ears. The spiritualists and master magicians were eager to get their hands on her and find out why her magic did not awaken at birth. A group of royal guardsmen were sent to fetch her and she was forcibly dragged before the emperor. When she offered no explanation of herself the emperor ordered her locked in the wood prison until the magicians decided what to do with her. On her way to the prison she escaped by what could only be described as a miracle of the gods, stole a few red kimonos and a bag containing some metal and other supplies and ran from the kingdom. She travelled the trade routes until she finally arrived in the port of Solaris. ((Just as a sidenote I copy+pasted this from a text file and it doesn't want to reformat to wiki Category:OC Category:Other